The beginning of the end: D-Day

SUPREME HEADQUARTERS, ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE, TUESDAY (AP) - American, British and Canadian troops landed in northern France this morning, launching the greatest overseas military operation in history with word from their supreme commander, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, that "we will accept nothing except full victory" over the German masters of the continent.

Text of the communique:

"Under the command of General Eisenhower, Allied naval forces, supported by strong air forces, began landing Allied armies this morning on the northern coast of France."

The general said the landings extended between Le Havre and Cherbourg, along the south side of the Bay of the Seine and along the northern Normandy coast.

Gen. Eisenhower, in his first order of the day, as monitored bv NBC in New York, read as follows:

"You are about to embark on a great crusade

"The eyes of the world are upon you and the hopes and prayers of all liberty-loving peoples go with you.

"You go with superior arms, security from the air, and incontestable right on your side.

"The enemy will fight hard and well. He will fight savagely in this year of 1944. You have air superiority, fine weapons."

Then followed a promise of victory and the order, read to all the troops by their commanding officers as they embarked, concluded as follows:

"We will be victorious. Good luck, and may the blessings of God go with you."

Paratroopers Storm French Beaches

WITH UNITED STATES PARACHUTE TROOPS, JUNE 6 (AP) - American paratroopers - studded with battle-hardened veterans of the Sicilian and Italian campaigns - landed behind Hitler's Atlantic Wall today to plant the first blow of the long-awaited Western Front squarely in the enemy vitals.

The Allies' toughest, wiriest men of war cascaded from faintly moonlit skies in an awesome operation.

Twin-engined Curtis Commandos bore the human cargo across the skies, simultaneously towing troop-laden gliders - to merge in a single sledgehammer blow, paving the way for frontal assault forces.

Armed with weapons from the most primitive to the most modern, the paratroopers' mission was to disrupt and demoralize the Germans' communications inside the Nazis' own lines.

The steel-helmeted, ankle-booted warriors wore a red, white and blue American flag insignia on the sleeve and camouflaged green-splotched battle dress.

In the dawn, dozens of American transport planes and gliders carrying parachute, and airborne troops flew from British bases toward the French coast. It was about 5 a.m. (11 p.m. Monday Eastern War Time).

"They're going over as thick as flies," said a American fighter pilot, just before he, too, flew off on a different assignment - patrolling the Fren coast to protect Allied land, sea and air operations.

"The sky was black with them as they headed for France above scattered clouds," reported Lt. Ralph Santasiero, 95-01 239th Street, Bellerose, Queens, a Thunderbolt pilot.

Big red flares and flashes were spotted in the distance by Lieut. Duane Bunce of Minneapolis, Minn., who figured they came from shellings on the French coast.

Squadrons of fighter pilots patrolled the French coast in endless relays to run interference for the big bombers - RAF Halifaxes and Whitneys and United States Liberators - which were searching for Nazi submarines offshore to keep the Channel open for Allied naval craft.

"We were acting as a buffer," said Lt. Thomas Hamilton of Miami, Fla., a fighter pilot, "but we didn't see a thing except bad weather. I don't think the Huns could get off the ground. If they had, there would have been a general rat race through the clouds, for there was a thick overcast up 7,000 feet."